Britain's
"French"
Channel
Islands
By JAMES CERRUTI
ASSISTANT EDITOR
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
JAMES L. AMOS
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHER
' HE QUEEN, OUR DUKE!" "The Duke, God
* bless her!" Odd toasts, indeed. I began to suspect
that things are not always what they seem in the
quirky, paradoxical Channel Islands. By cherished
tradition the islanders drink their sovereign's health as
Duke of Normandy, regardless of sex, though they may
toast Elizabeth II as Duchess on state occasions. But
they never lift their glasses to her as Queen of England.
"Don't you dare say we're English! England never
conquered us. We conquered England!" My informant
was mettlesome red-haired Jennie de Sausmarez, beau
tiful daughter of the Seigneur de Sausmarez, one of
Guernsey's feudal lords.
Jennie has a point. When William, Duke of Nor
mandy, seized England in 1066, the Channel Islands
already part of Normandy for more than a century
shared the glory of the conquest.* In the 13th century,
the French took Normandy from John, King of England
and Duke of Normandy. But they failed to get the Chan
nel Islands, and so, by virtue of possessing these frag
ments of the great duchy, the English King-or Queen
-is still Duke of Normandy. In return for this honor,
the British liege must endure the islanders' inclination
to regard England as their oldest possession.
Under the Duke, and within the British Isles (in
which England, they correctly insist, is just another
party), the islanders rule themselves through venerable
(Continued on page 715)
Brave British lass, vacationing
*Historian Kenneth M. Setton wrote "900 Years Ago: The Norman
at Vazon Bay on Guernsey, noses
Conquest" for the August 1966 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC,
up to a new friend-one of the
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